In its most general form, the well known childrens' game of hide and seek is played by a plurality of children, one of whom is designated as the seeker (commonly referred to as "IT"), and the remaining children being designated as hiders. The seeker remains at a predesignated location (generally referred to as "home base"), covers his or her eyes and begins counting to a predetermined number while the hiders depart from home base and attempt to find suitable hiding places in which to hide from the seeker. Upon counting to the aforementioned predetermined number, the seeker announces that he or she is commencing to search or seek out the hiders in their various hiding places (i.e. by yelling an appropriate warning such as "ready or not, here I come!"). While the seeker is searching for the hiders, individual ones of the hiders endeavour to return to home base.
Upon discovering one of the individuals in hiding, both the seeker and the hider race towards home base. In the event that the seeker reaches home base before the hider, the hider becomes the new seeker and calls in the remaining hiders to return to home base (i.e. by yelling "all ye all ye in come free!"). Thereafter, the game begins again with the new deignated seeker counting to the predetermined number, etc.
In the event that the hider reaches home base before the seeker, the hider is considered "safe", and the seeker continues searching for the remaining hiders. In the event that all of the hiders return to home base without being caught by the seeker, the game re-starts with the same designated seeker.